Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid,\u00a0an appointee of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, informed the\u00a0Fulton County Board of Elections that she \u201cdid not arrive at this decision lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n Wake Technology Services Inc. (Wake TSI), a software company based in\u00a0West Chester, Pennsylvania, had carried out an election assessment that involved its workers visiting Fulton County in December 2020 and in early February.<\/p>\n The company in May released a report that concluded the election was \u201cwell-run\u201d and did not indicate any signs of fraud in Fulton County. However,\u00a0five \u201cissues of note\u201d were uncovered<\/a>, three of which are related to\u00a0Dominion Voting Systems<\/a><\/strong>, whose electronic voting system was used in the county for the 2020 election.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cWhile these may seem minor, the impact on an election can be huge,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Wake TSI said of the five issues.\u00a0At the time, Dominion disputed the report\u2019s findings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The\u00a0Pennsylvania Department of State said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday that Wake TSI\u2019s access to the Fulton County\u2019s voting system \u201cundermined the chain of custody requirements and strict access limitations necessary to prevent both intentional and inadvertent tampering with electronic voting systems.\u201d<\/p>\n It added that the \u201cunauthorized access\u201d prevents\u00a0the vendor\u2014Dominion\u2014from \u201caffirming that the system continues to meet state and federal certification standards.\u201d<\/p>\n Fulton county officials had allowed Wake TSI to \u201caccess certain key components of its certified system, including the county\u2019s election database, results files, and Windows systems logs,\u201d and to \u201cuse a system imaging tool to take complete hard drive images of these computers and other digital equipment,\u201d the department noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThese actions were taken in a manner that was not transparent,\u201d Degraffenreid said in her\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0to Fulton County officials on Tuesday. She said the access given to Wake TSI has caused Fulton County\u2019s voting system to be \u201ccompromised,\u201d and that neither\u00a0the county, state officials, nor Dominion could now \u201cverify that the impacted components of Fulton County\u2019s leased voting system are safe to use in future elections.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have no other choice but to decertify the use of Fulton County\u2019s leased Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5A voting system last used in the November 2020 election,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Degraffenreid wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The\u00a0Fulton County Board of Elections and Wake TSI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania Department of State previously said that a risk-limiting audit of the 2020 election has confirmed the state\u2019s election results.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Pennsylvania Capital-Star<\/a>\u00a0reported that Fulton County needed to pay $25,000 to lease new equipment for its municipal elections in May, because Dominion refused to let the county use the voting machines that Wake TSI had accessed. According to the outlet, Dominion told the county that it violated its contract in letting a unaccredited and non-certified company inspect the machines.<\/p>\n Wake TSI\u2019s assessment in Fulton County was \u201cset\u201d by Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, according to a Dec. 31, 2020\u00a0document<\/a>\u00a0signed by the company that was obtained and published by the Arizona Mirror and The Washington Post. Wake TSI said in its report that Mastriano and Pennsylvania Sen. Judy Ward, also a Republican, \u201cwere aware of our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n The document also said that Wake TSI was \u201ccontracted to Defending the Republic,\u201d a nonprofit founded by lawyer Sidney Powell, who has alleged that widespread fraud occurred in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n Mastriano earlier this month\u00a0issued letters<\/a>\u00a0to York, Tioga, and Philadelphia counties requesting that they voluntarily submit information and materials\u00a0by July 31, to enable what he calls a \u201cforensic investigation\u201d of the 2020 and 2021 elections. He told The Epoch Times that he\u00a0seeks for an investigation that would be\u00a0\u201ca big deep dive, like we saw in Arizona, but even deeper.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Wake TSI was also involved in the election audit still underway in Arizona\u2019s Maricopa County up until\u00a0its contract expired in May.<\/a>\u00a0The audit in Maricopa County was\u00a0ordered by the Arizona state Senate\u2019s Republican majority. Dominion machines in\u00a0Maricopa County will also be\u00a0replaced<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, said the machines were not tampered with during the audit and questioned the\u00a0Board of Supervisors\u2019 decision to get new machines.<\/p>\n \u201cIf their experts can\u2019t prove the machines have not been tampered with, then how does the [Secretary of State\u2019s office] or County Elections certify the machines before every audit to make sure the machines haven\u2019t been tampered with?\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>she asked in June.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/pennsylvania-fulton-county-700x420.jpg?itok=ls42micc\")
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